From the Edgar Awardwinning author of The Janissary Treecomes the fourth and most captivating Investigator Yashim mystery yet! It takes a writer of prodigious talents to conjure the Istanbul of the Ottoman Empire in all its majesty. In three previous novels, Jason Goodwin has taken us on stylish, suspenseful, and vibrant excursions into its exotic territory. Now, in An Evil Eye, the mystery of Istanbul runs deeper than ever before. It's 1839, and the admiral of the Ottoman fleet has defected to the Egyptians. It's up to the intrepid Investigator Yashim to uncover the man's motives. Of course, Fevzi Ahmet is no stranger to Yashimit was Fevzi who taught the investigator his craft years ago. He's the only man whom Yashim has ever truly feared: ruthless, cruel, and unswervingly loyal to the sultan. So what could have led Yashim's former mentor to betray the Ottoman Empire? Yashim's search draws him into the sultan's seraglio, a well-appointed world with an undercurrent of fear, ambition, and deep-seated superstition. When the women of the sultan's orchestra begin inexplicably to grow ill and die, Yashim discovers that the admiral's defection may be rooted somewhere in the torturous strictures of the sultan's harem. No one knows more about the Ottoman Empire and Istanbul than Jason Goodwin, of whom Janet Maslin wrote in The New York Times: "Mr. Goodwin uses rich historical detail to elevate the books in this series . . . far above the realm of everyday sleuthing."

An Evil Eye - Book 4 - Yashim the Ottoman Detective

An Evil Eye: A Novel (Investigator Yashim)

An Evil Eye (Yashim the Eunuch, #4)

Goodwin, Jason

Faber & Faber Classical Music & Dance

Farrar, Straus, and Giroux

Faber & Faber, Limited

Sarah Crichton Books

North Point Press

Faber Finds

Hill & Wang

Macmillan

Yashim the Ottoman investigator, 1st ed, New York, 2011

Yashim the Ottoman Detective, London, England, 2011

United Kingdom and Ireland, United Kingdom

1st ed., New York, New York State, 2011

United States, United States of America

Sarah Crichton books, New York, 2011

1st, First Edition, PS, 2011

"Sarah Crichton books."

<DIV><DIV> <DIV></DIV><DIV><DIV><B><I>Istanbul, 1836</I></B></DIV><DIV><B>T</B>HE yali <I>is made of wood silvered by the sun, dry as tinder.</I></DIV><DIV><I>As evening falls, the timbers begin to cool. Beams settle; boards contract. Cracks ease around the window frames, whose latticed glass flames orange with the setting sun.</I></DIV><DIV><I>The pasha’s two-oared caïque skims like a cormorant up the Bosphorus toward it, away from Istanbul.</I></DIV><DIV><I>He leans into the cushions, his back to the setting sun, and lets his mind rove idly across the water, over the surface of his ambitions and his desires.</I></DIV><DIV><I>He checks himself. He is not a superstitious man, but praise and pride attract the evil eye; certain thoughts are better left unframed.</I></DIV><DIV><I>Almost guiltily, he turns his head. The</I> yali <I>stands so beautifully at the water’s edge, looking out across the Bosphorus to the hills of Asia beyond. The evening meal has been taken, and he imagines the murmur of voices as his household prepares for sleep. He can almost hear the</I> yali <I>settling, its old bones composing themselves for the night, wooden joints creaking and crackling in the dusk.</I></DIV><DIV><I>He turns his head—and puts out a hand, as if it were in his power to stop what is about to happen. As if he could fit the house in his own palm, and keep it safe.</I></DIV><DIV><I>Between his outstretched fingers, the</I> yali <I>is ablaze.</I></DIV><DIV><I>It burns so beautifully, as if a wild spirit were dashing through the rooms. A window explodes, and against the evening sky the sparks fly up like shooting stars. Galaxies twist from the staircase; suns blaze in every room.</I></DIV><DIV><I>The pasha screams. The rowers glance back. They miss a stroke.</I></DIV><DIV><I>Over the crash of falling timber and the snapping of the flames, the pasha hears screams from the harem apartments, upstairs.</I></DIV><DIV><I>When the caïque touches the marble stairs, the pasha flings himself onto shore. His mouth is open, sweat rolling down his face.</I></DIV><DIV><I>He races from one end of the burning house to the other, moaning. He feels the heat on his face. He can no longer hear the screams.</I></DIV><DIV><I>But he hears, instead, someone call his name.</I></DIV><DIV><I>“Fevzi Pasha! Pasha!”</I></DIV><DIV><I>Two arms thrust a bundle from a window. The pasha reaches up.</I></DIV><DIV><I>The roof sags, dropping a sudden flurry of flaming shingles, which spin to the ground. The pasha leaps back. The figure at the window is gone. The window is gone.</I></DIV><DIV><I>The flames are driving a firestorm: the pasha feels the wind snatch at his cloak, drawing him back toward the</I> yali<I>.</I></DIV><DIV><I>He cradles the bundle to his chest and stumbles away.</I></DIV><DIV><I>The gate bursts open, and a crowd of men surges in with buckets, hooks, ladders. But it is far too late. As the men run by, the pasha hears timbers break and the sky is lit up.</I></DIV><DIV><I>He does not turn back.</I></DIV></DIV><DIV><DIV><B><I>1</I></B></DIV><DIV><B>C</B>ANNON boomed across the Bosphorus. White smoke, the color of mourning, billowed low over the water.</DIV><DIV>Sultan Mahmut II was dead. He had come to the throne of Osman as the turbaned ruler of a medieval empire, and had died in a frock coat and a fez. In his long reign he had given the Ottoman Empire French saddles, a constitution of sorts, modern drill and percussion rifles. He had destroyed the ferocious Janissaries, as an obstacle to progress, and he had lost Greece to the Greeks and Crimea to the Russians and Egypt to an Albanian adventurer called Mehmet Ali Pasha. He had built himself a modern palace, at Besiktas, where he maintained a harem like sultans of old.</DIV><DIV>The harem was in pandemonium.</DIV><DIV>“You are the Kislar aga, Ibou. You must help them to leave,” Yashim said quietly. “The sultan’s harem is your domain. The sultan has died, and the women must move on.”</DIV><DIV>The Kislar aga, the master of the girls, shut his eyes and pressed his fingers against his smooth cheeks. “They—they do not want to go, Yashim.”</DIV><DIV>“Abdülmecid is sultan now. Any moment he may arrive here, at Besiktas, and he will bring his women.” Yashim gestured to the staircase.</DIV><DIV>The Kislar aga took a deep breath and started up the stairs. “You must come with me. We must get the women away.”</DIV><DIV>Yashim followed reluctantly as the Kislar aga bustled through the gallery, clapping his hands. “The carriages are come, ladies! To the carriages!”</DIV><DIV>Not one of the women paid him the slightest attention. They had spent years learning how to behave, how to speak, how to be beautiful, devoting their lives to the service of the sultan. Now the sultan was dead and carriages were to take them away.</DIV><DIV>They wanted to wail and scream, and to mourn.</DIV><DIV>To mourn the sultan, their youth, their hopes.</DIV><DIV>And grab what they could, while there was still time.</DIV></DIV><DIV>Copyright © 2011 by Jason Goodwin</DIV></DIV></DIV> <BR><BR><i>Continues...</i> <!-- copyright notice --> <br></pre> <blockquote><hr noshade size='1'><font size='-2'> Excerpted from <b>An Evil Eye</b> by <b>Jason Goodwin</b> Copyright © 2011 by Jason Goodwin. Excerpted by permission.<br> All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.<br>Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

From the Edgar Awardwinning author of The Janissary Tree comes the fourth and most captivating Investigator Yashim mystery yet!
It takes a writer of prodigious talents to conjure the Istanbul of the Ottoman Empire in all its
majesty. In three previous novels, Jason Goodwin has taken us on stylish, suspenseful, and vibrant excursions into its exotic territory. Now, in An Evil Eye , the mystery of Istanbul runs deeper than ever before.
Its 1839, and the admiral of the Ottoman fleet has defected to the Egyptians. Its up to the intrepid Investigator Yashim to uncover the mans motives. Of course, Fevzi Ahmet is no stranger to Yashimit was Fevzi who taught the investigator his craft years ago. Hes the only man whom Yashim has ever truly feared: ruthless, cruel, and unswervingly loyal to the sultan. So what could have led Yashims former mentor to betray the Ottoman Empire?
Yashims search draws him into the sultans seraglio, a well-appointed world with an undercurrent of fear, ambition, and deep-seated superstition. When the women of the sultans orchestra begin inexplicably to grow ill and die, Yashim discovers that the admirals defection may be rooted somewhere in the torturous strictures of the sultans harem.
No one knows more about the Ottoman Empire and Istanbul than Jason Goodwin, of whom Janet
Maslin wrote in The New York Times : Mr. Goodwin uses rich historical detail to elevate the books in this series . . . far above the realm of everyday sleuthing.

"From the Edgar Award-winning author of The Janissary Tree, The Snake Stone, and The Bellini Card comes the fourth adventure of the famous investigator Yashim. When the admiral of the Ottoman fleet defects to the Egyptians, Yashim attempts to uncover the man's motives. But Fevzi Pasha is no stranger to Yashim: it was Pasha, in fact, who taught the investigator his craft years ago. He is the only man whom Yashim has ever truly feared: ruthless, cruel, and unswervingly loyal to the sultan. What dark secret has led his former mentor to betray the Ottoman Empire? While unraveling Pasha's curious history, Yashim is drawn ever deeper into the closed world of the sultan's seraglio, an intimate household populated by the young ruler's women, children, slaves, and eunuchs. It is a well-appointed world dominated by fear, ambition, and deep-seated superstitions--a lap of luxury where talented girls hold sway in the ladies' orchestra. But as the women of that orchestra inexplicably grow ill and die, Yashim discovers that his investigations into the admiral's defection have their roots in the torturous strictures of the sultan's harem, where every secret is sacred: a place where the normal rules are suspended and where women can simply disappear"--
"The fourth chapter in the adventures of Investigator Yashim, the eunuch detective"--

When the admiral of the Ottoman fleet defects to the Egyptians, Yashim attempts to uncover the man's motives. But Fevzi Pasha is no stranger to Yashim: it was Pasha, in fact, who taught the investigator his craft years ago. He is the only man whom Yashim has ever truly feared: ruthless, cruel, and unswervingly loyal to the sultan. What dark secret has led his former mentor to betray the Ottoman Empire? While unraveling Pasha's curious history, Yashim is drawn ever deeper into the closed world of the sultan's seraglio, an intimate household populated by the young ruler's women, children, slaves, and eunuchs. It is a well-appointed world dominated by fear, ambition, and deep-seated superstitions--a lap of luxury where talented girls hold sway in the ladies' orchestra. But as the women of that orchestra inexplicably grow ill and die, Yashim discovers that his investigations into the admiral's defection have their roots in the torturous strictures of the sultan's harem, where every secret is sacred: a place where the normal rules are suspended and where women can simply disappear"-- Provided by publisher

When the body of a Russian agent is found down a monastery well, Yashim knows exactly who to blame. Fevzi Ahmet Pasha, commander of the Ottoman fleet. Years ago, when Yashim first entered the sultan's service, Fevzi Ahmet was his mentor. Ruthless, cruel, and - in Yashim's eyes - ultimately ineffective, he is the only man who makes him afraid. And now Yashim must confront the secret that Fevzi Pasha has been keeping all these years, a secret whose roots lie deep in the tortured atmosphere of the sultan's harem, where normal rules are suspended, and women can simply disappear. Once again, Yashim and his friends encounter treachery and politics, played out against the backdrop of 1840s Istanbul

2026-06-26